The Empress’s Gigolo

Qing Lian left after staying for a week in Lan City as she had to help Ren Baqian contact a few sword masters.

The rest had to stay in Lan City as they couldn’t leave after buying so many crops. Qing Lian left without having to care.

This wasn’t only related to the lives of millions of rebel soldiers, but also to the stability of the rebel support force.

As long as the crops could be delivered and planted, there would be enough food in one year to pacify the citizens and the rebel army would be able to stabilize.

In contrast, the commoners in the areas controlled by Great Xia were still destitute.

It could be said that these high-yield crops were the best weapon to use against the imperial court of Great Xia.

Even if Great Xia could obtain these crops and plant them en masse, they needed two to three years and a lot of things could happen in the meantime.

Therefore the rebels had to attach great importance to it, and it was even more important than their lives.

Less than a week after Qing Lian’s departure, half of this contingent of more than 700 rebel soldiers were seriously injured and half of them were lightly injured.

The general leading the contingent had half of his bones broken by someone.

Ren Baqian scratched his head when he received this report.

At the beginning, only a portion of the Great Xia people were beaten. However, they weren’t the ones who stirred up trouble since they weren’t fools.

After all, there were few foreigners in Lan City.

Was it the Jing Tribe?

As soon as they heard that these people were from Great Xia and that they weren’t protected, some aboriginals immediately started disturbing them after remembering that they fought a battle with Great Xia two years ago.

Some people rationalized along this line of thought, leading to dozens of Great Xia people getting seriously injured.

The aboriginals fought all year round and were experienced. They knew how far to go and didn’t even kill one person.

The most seriously injured just had more than 30 broken bones.

As soon as General Huaji received the news, he became angry. Was there no law? Although it was aboriginal territory, how could they simply bully anyone? He couldn’t hide his head like a turtle or he wouldn’t be able to face others when he went home.

Subsequently, he brought people out with him.

In the beginning, seven to eight people attacked 30 or 40 of them.

Later, it became 70 or 80 people attacking 600 or 700 people.

After reading the report, Ren Baqian felt that these aboriginals were too much. In particular, the security personnel just stood aside and watched the action. Where was the law and order?

Dayao was a society governed by laws… Well, not yet!

When Ren Baqian first came here, the aboriginals frequently bashed the foreign merchants until their brains came out. The punishment was only three to ten lashes of the whip, and these aboriginals were up and running after eight to ten days in bed.

Ren Baqian rubbed his forehead and then went to look for the empress.

The empress was practicing prenatal care… Her method was to watch television shows, eat candy and fruit, and drink wine…

Ren Baqian wanted to change the empress’s habits during pregnancy… but after four days of arguments, he gave in.

If they carried on arguing, he would die before completing his mission.

He could only hope that the empress stayed healthy and that their son in her womb could become big and strong…

There was also the possibility of a baby girl!

Whatever will be, will be! Even if it was a ball!

“Your Majesty!” Ren Baqian slammed the report on the table.

The empress looked up, leaned back lethargically, put a hand on her stomach, and said, “I have another in my stomach and can’t be angered or scared.”

“Your Majesty, why can’t we learn something beneficial? Don’t always learn from those crappy things in television shows. Anyway, who dares to provoke you when you can beat eight people with one hand?” Ren Baqian felt that if there was anything worse than an indifferent empress, it was an empress who always learned from television shows.

“With your body condition, I can probably beat 800 of you!” The empress gestured with her hand.

“At least 800!” Ren Baqian added.

“Aren’t you busy now? What’s the problem?” The empress raised a corner of her eye.

“Your Majesty, take a look.” Ren Baqian sighed.

The empress took a glance, leaned back, and asked, “What do you think I should do?”

“A country has its laws!” Ren Baqian explained the pros and cons of following rules. “Your Majesty, things are no longer the same as they were in the past. We can’t look at it from the perspective of Great Xia alone, and actually, it doesn’t really matter how Great Xia people view it. The people of the Jing Tribe and the Yun Nation are watching how the empress will handle this. The aboriginal citizens and officials are also watching. If you let them off again, their courage will increase and they will continue to behave this way. They will not only attack the people from Great Xia, but also members of the Jing Tribe and people from the Yun Nation.”

The empress put a finger under her chin and smiled at Ren Baqian before saying, “You look pretty cute when you talk like this! Fine, I know what to do and will compensate them. Those who beat others will receive 30 lashes while those security people who were onsite, but didn’t do their jobs, will get 60 lashes. If it happens again, they will be sacked. As for the people from Great Xia, I will send physicians to treat them.”

Ren Baqian nodded. A response like this would shock some people awake.

The brains of the aboriginals were full of muscles, and their memories were short.

However, the security department, from top to bottom, would definitely remember.

“Your Majesty, I will make a move first,” Ren Baqian said.

“Keep me company as I’m very bored,” the empress said listlessly.

Ren Baqian had to go to the Ministry of Works in the afternoon and then meet the newly appointed commander of the Rearguard Commandery. He was wavering between work commitments and the needs of the empress.

Did he need to choose?

“I’m a person who works hard for the people!” Ren Baqian said conscientiously.

“Oh? I’m only finding out today!” the empress said with a spurious smile.

“Of course, when compared to the people, Your Majesty is more important!” Ren Baqian said without blinking.

“Forget it—you go ahead! If I continue to talk to you, I will feel like a fatuous ruler.” The empress waved her hands to show her disappointment.

“How can I?” Ren Baqian sat beside the empress and laughed, then said, “What’s the problem with staying for half a day?”

“Do you think you are a sycophant?” The empress was amused.

“If Your Majesty is a fatuous ruler, I will be a sycophant. If Your Majesty is upright, I will be a capable official!” Ren Baqian laughed heartily.

After keeping the empress company for two hours, Ren Baqian departed in a hurry.

He got someone to inform Tong Zhenye that he would go to the Ministry of Works the next day.

He had to see the newly appointed commander of the Rearguard Commandery

In recent months, the Rearguard Commandery had doubled in size. The number of tiqi had increased from 2,000 to 4,000 while the number of non-staff members, called lishi, had grown from 8,000 to 16,000 people.

This meant that the Rearguard Commandery consisted of a total of four qianhu now.

Of the original two qianhu, one of them was in Tianjing Basin and the other was in the Yun Nation.

Two new qianhu were to be trained for three months before being dispatched to the Yun Nation and Great Xia.

For those sent to Great Xia, their main activities were to gather information on the masters and their movements as well as to collect information on some ancient tombs.

Deducing from the trails left by the human race after crossing the Sixty Thousand Mountains, besides the aboriginals left in the mountains, the rest of the survivors should have moved in two directions. One was toward the Chen Nation, but most of them went in the direction of Great Xia, where they thrived and reproduced.

In other words, anything that was left by this group of humans would be in their graves in Great Xia.

Moreover, ancient tombs were occasionally discovered. They were all found in Great Xia and caused experts and court officials to fight over them every time.

Ren Baqian was very interested in this matter!